Lynne Minion putting another boot into UC Journalism

The ongoing PR woes of the University of Canberra continue this morning as their PhD student Lynne Minion goes for another trot in The Australian (you can get around the paywall via google.

On Thursday, following Parker’s arrival home, UC issued a media release defending its conduct, claiming that English expression was only one component of the assessment criteria, the others being newsworthiness, difficulty and sources, fairness and accuracy, and cohesiveness and logicality. Therefore, it was possible for second-year print journalism students to “pass the writing task irrespective of their mark for English expression”.

Unfortunately, it was an explanation that probably did more damage to the reputation of UC’s journalism degree and likely prompted some derision among journalists who spend their careers devoted to the craft of words. It certainly bemused me — after all, I was the tutor.

The university’s media release also claimed it had never heard of allegations of soft-marking before and that a search of its IT system hadn’t unearthed an email referred to in The Australian’s story, in which the lecturer, former Canberra Times editor Crispin Hull, had instructed me to pass the poorly performing Chinese students.

We’re intrigued to hear of this media release which has yet to grace UC’s media centre.